Mobile phones, and services on mobile handsets (mobile handset also refers to embedded devices in e.g. PCs, laptops, vehicles etc.) have had a fantastic evolution during the last decade. When 3GPP standardized GSM, and later 3G during the late 1980's and 1990's, circuit switched telephony and later Short Message Service (SMS) were mainly the only services available. Since then, mobile handsets and networks have evolved to create powerful devices capable of running both local applications and browser based services, connected to a network providing a bandwidth high enough for TV and interactive multimedia. With the increasing bandwidth, and need to provide a feasible technical platform and transport technology for multimedia services, packet-switched networks, e.g., using Internet Protocol (IP) as the fundamental technology, are becoming the dominating platforms for mobile services. There are a number of reasons why this trend is being supported by most actors in the communications business. One reason is that third parties will start to develop applications for such systems, and just as in the case with Internet, this will likely be a key to the expected success of next generation technologies. Another reason is that IP provides a technology platform where it is cheaper to deploy functionality. This is to a large extent due to economy of scale, as technology also used by the IT industry is cheaper than traditional telecom technology.
Additionally, with the increasing bandwidth, advanced mobile handsets having IP connectivity, a functionality that was previously implemented as a tightly integrated functionality in the operators' networks with so-called “thin” (e.g., relatively limited processing and/or memory resource) clients and using control channels for communication, are available as applications located in the IP domain in the operators' network (or even outside of their networks), and with a relatively “thicker” (e.g., having relatively more resources) client on the handset. In other words, the conventional thin clients were limited in their capabilities and thus, the logic in the service relied on network and/or server and proxy side instead of relying on the mobile handset. Typical example of the thin clients is the traditional browsers and/or SMS/MMS based services. However, with the development of the more advanced mobile handsets, the thicker clients, i.e., Java/Symbian/iPhone applications, have more of the logics performed in the client and not in the network and/or server. This is also true for the next generation web environments with more advanced browsers, for example Google Gears and Android. In order for these “thicker” clients to communicate with servers in the network, there is often a need to transfer information therebetween, e.g., information regarding the network capabilities and/or the native functionality in the handset, and there arises, therefore, a need for interfaces and protocols which enable the exchange of such information. This functionality and information is, to a large extent, what is often referred to as the “control plane” of a communication system, while the communications between a client associated with the handset and a server in the network, e.g., based on a packet-based technology such as IP, is usually referred to as the “user plane”.
There are several interfaces which have the capability to obtain data about the native functionality of the handset and network information stored in the control plane, in the handset, which an operator would not like to share with an unauthorized user or server. Such interfaces are based on operating system (OS), which typically provides most of the native functionality that is available in the handset. Examples of OS are Symbian, Nokia Series 60, Windows Mobile and Linux. These OSs may provide interfaces for services and information that are available in the control plane. Examples of such services and information include Call Control, SMS/MMS services, as well as network information, e.g., base station ID to which a handset is currently attached, neighbor list and active/passive set. An active set includes 3G base stations that are candidates for soft handover and the handset decoded the pilots of these base stations in order to be able to perform the handover. A passive set includes 3G base stations that are heard by the handset but are not candidates for soft handover. The handset does not decode these pilots to the same degree as for the active set. In addition to the interfaces provided by the OS, Java (J2ME) or other run time environments also provide a wide set of standardized interfaces in which a Java application may obtain access to the services and information from the control plane.
On the other hand, since the user plane based services typically mean lower investment cost and shorter time to market, the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has standardized service enablers based on user plane signaling. One example of a user plane based service is the user plane based positioning standardized in OMA Secure User Plane Location (SUPL). In SUPL, a SUPL client in the terminal may access network information and positioning capability. The client may communicate with a SUPL Server using IP and a provisioned IP address.
This type of architecture raises certain issues and challenges. As the interfaces to the control plane provide the user plane services with a mechanism to obtain information from the control plane, this information can be exported to entities outside of the operators' domain. However, since some of the information from the control plane may be sensitive and can be abused by entities outside the operator, these interfaces may introduce a commercial, and sometimes a security, risk for the operator. As various services and clients need the information provided by these interfaces and thus, the information has to be supplied to the legitimate services and/or clients. Such legitimate services and/or clients are those, for example, that have established an agreement with the operator for receiving sensitive network information. One example of such sensitive network information is the Cell-ID and also the neighbor list, i.e., a list including neighbor base stations and/or cells of a given cell. For services such as OMA SUPL positioning and IP Multimedia Subsystem services, the user plane clients need the information from the control plane in order to work properly. Thus, hiding the information from the control plane from everybody except the operator is not a solution.
When information such as the Cell-ID is available to applications in the user plane, other actors than the operator can monitor and register the information and use it to compete with the operator, for example, to gain business advantages. One example of such competitive use is that of independent actors (not related or in a relationship with the operator) providing user positioning services and statistics, using the operator's infrastructure. Another competitive use is that of competing operators monitoring, and keeping registers of, competing operator's network infrastructure for business intelligence. In addition to these commercial examples, there are also some countries in which the information, such as cell planes, is supposed to be kept secret due to national security reasons. As the information as such, e.g. the Cell-ID, often is used in a large number of nodes and systems in the operators network (e.g. access and routing control, user management and charging etc.), this information should be properly controlled by the operator to be available to the permitted services and/or clients and also to the equipment within the network.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide devices, systems and methods that avoid the afore-described problems and drawbacks.